The Southern Tier Memory Store; Vol. II "The Playground of the Southern Tier"

Firing back one thing still I would say. There are some. Form of command. Switch. And there were dried fruits are. Never seen over this. Roughness before the. Island. The money that

we have really used to come here all the time the merry go on used to be right in this building and the roller coaster you see the building with the slab. That was a goal post. Right here was where the bumper. Oh. Down. In the news to stay with me. And help me put up something here and here. You know the areaway. It was a real thing.

People in Elmira having fun in Eldridge park for well over a century. On this day the big attraction is the carnival and mark the picnic shelters are a favorite place for a family reunion and when ever the generations come together here the memories could be of the Midway and the dragon boat. The roller coaster at the open air picture shows and the wonderful carousel at one time or another all the occupied part of the 200 acres that was designed to be one of America's finest urban park. It first opened way back in the 1860s and was originally the personal property of Dr. Edwin Eldridge and Elmira physician a nature lover who shared his land with the people of his fair city. One wouldn't think of picnicking in Eldridge unless the linen tablecloth was all newly laundered fresh linen napkins rolled and standing in the drinking glass tube and fancy china plates. Mabel would.

The park was beautifully landscaped and filled with classic statues some of which caused Victorian era parents do for their children to go there. At the center of Eldridge park then and now was the lake the lake was actually hand dug and under saw if you were going to grab the leg because out about every five feet there's about a five foot drop on it was a dog like an open pit mine. All that dirt from the leg is the picnic all behind you now. No big hard headed stop on the Erie Railroad and the Elmira and Horsehead street railway carried visitors in from town. The most popular attractions through the 1880s and 90s was the casino not a gambling but an ornate restaurant ice cream parlor and observation tower.

A dance hall with a capacity of 3000 was built alongside the spawning bands and just a few quick steps from the railroad station. There were religious services in the chapel while across the road the Trotters raced on the Eldridge track. The most celebrated of the horses was American girl which collapsed at the finish line of her final race in 1875 and was memorialized in one of the few statues anywhere of a writer lit spores. As the 20th century dawned. Eldridge park gained the attention of the butler and long families British immigrants whose work included the famous English resort at Blackpool. They brought to Elmira the first carousel driven by electricity. But during World War One the statues were donated to scrap metal

drives the groves went to seed in the amusement park fell into disrepair. In 1924 Robert Long whose father had installed the original carousel returned to go into business for himself. He brought a new carousel and a new bright roofs. When we came here in my city 24. Let's go on. Well I thought it was that. On all up he'll pitch what it was. There were watering there were all there are from the time when up with just carriages. Bob and Ruth long and superintendent Fred Wright rebuilt Eldridge park spruce up the ground laid out today extreme paths. And of course. Ran the carousel. Those at that time for Mary there. Were. Five of them. Oh. Boy.

And thank you by blood. Oh. Man they out. You can make. Many of them and have even a nickel to buy American. And my Bob would. Win. That. And. You. Got a ride or. Die. And there was another big attraction that was open to every. Move you see. That was a big that was a big thing you know you had the they had the Irish over here you had the terriers over Harriet had the whole show over here and then they had the Germans they were all segregated that was the big attraction. People come in watching movies and then you would come older in them days a penny was tight you know and they used to you there sure mother for a penny or something to come and get a one and done

took two rolls or something you know and the movie would start at 9 o'clock and would run till 9:30 and then there would be an intermission which lasted until 10:00 o'clock to give everybody time to go out spend the money and then come back and then at 10:00 10:30 10:45 the movie whatever it was or not. I'm usually long sometimes still not in the park to stay Jack there area like the stage actor aerial act that we used to have in those days would start at 8 o'clock and also at 11 o'clock after the movie and that keep that kept the people here to patronize all of the concessions. There they were third considered third run movies at the time. My father got them out of a film exchange out of Buffalo. We had to be very careful we weren't showing any movies that competed with any in town and it is the editors which we have five theatres in Elmira in those

days. So we we got some pretty old movies. One I recall particularly being Crosby is a bit player. The title was so old and my father featured this film for us Sunday night we had a large crowd and he told me don't run the title or any of the cast. He said blackout the film until we get into the movie and then open it up on the opening scene. I said how come and he said this thing is so all I'm ashamed that you know I have to show in front of a big crowd like this. But the crowd loved him as well as the other shows on stage. Houdini came to the big dance played in the water skiers from Cypress Gardens flew across the lake. I mean remember when we put in. It took at least five years to pay for that. Graham. No it wasn't. People probably thought they were rolling in money. But it wasn't like

that. There was a proper car building there was a scrambler ride. There was a flying scooter ride located break adjacent to the lake here. Of course across from it is the wet ride some of these rides were put in by her Bendtner starting with a roller coaster. In the early 30s. The coaster main. Terminal or station is located directly over here adjacent to the. Crypt. If you will. As well as a teacup ride behind you right here on the Lake Worth a pontoon boat ride. With the passing of the hard times of the 30s there was a major development that average part in 1940 to Robert Long refurbish the carousel. It was a big commercial making five and a half revolutions a minute.

There were 36 stationary animals. And 20 jumpers. Find the curved carousel features some dating back to the. End of each revolution huge circle the ring. And if you were lucky you'd catch the branch right and win a free ride. Ride ride. This was. This was my child. I will not. Sell tickets. I was put to work. So and you always started off at the bumper cars because the change was easy to make 25 cents a ride at that time and the spook house to advance to the Spittal palace because it was a little more complicated think that was 35 cents. So the change wasn't quite so even at that if you were really good they put you in the merry go round and that was you know that was the most complex change there. Ten cents a piece 3 for 25. I was actually born here but ever since I was a baby I spent every summer here

from the time now one two years all the way up through. Well as far as popularity you don't gain a lot of popularity unless you give away a lot of rides and that really happens. Might have thought. The children loved the miniature versions of the big rock. Out on the lake. There was the dragon. A maritime monster which Bob Long lovingly maintain. And of course there were the refresh. Of a local server. About so. And can move at will. And then of course we went a. Little well then but the rich man. That Jay Parker who was our PR man. You're the one. Who. Named. Playground. Yeah. But even a playground it's probably one of the worst was due to the fact that the leak which

contrary to look at. It is not bottomless had no natural outlet. Flooding was a regular occurrence. Vandalism also became a problem including destruction of the statue of American girl. In 1981. The games rides and food concessions were sold to the park manager Anthony buns of. The bitter Jacobs and long families kept position of the carousel. But rising expenses for the amusement park forced it to close at the end of the 90s. You see. It was great. You know take a look. Just spending the money. It was a great place. It's nice what they've done with it but I think that you know will never have. Despite efforts to save the carousel in 1989 the classic animals were auctioned as works of art but the mechanism to drive the carousel was never removed and is still at the heart of the building where Bob Long installed. When I and there were began certainly were.

Certainly what right back that night. Well. Yeah. Great Grandson Tyler Dunn who could have been the fifth generation of his family to take the ride. A.

It's long been observed that getting through college in Ithaca New York was easy compared with simply getting to is there go deep in the heels and equally inaccessible from all directions. For many years the quickest route in and out of town was via rail that's ago asserted by three roads Lehigh Valley own two of the road lines coming into the city and the island of it was the third. There were three stations wanted East African and two downtown one on each side of the unit. The main line and the most bad your trains came in on this line. I don't believe there was more more than four each way a day on this line

but they were there were large large frames each to sukkah line. Probably four five maybe six each day. A smaller range. Shorter but they were more afraid. The Delaware Lackawanna and Western station is still part of it as a transportation system serving now as a bus terminal. Tracks came down on the on the other side on the west side of the ditch of that station. And. They continued to the north to a small yard for the freight which had a terminal had a small and three stall roundhouse and a turntable for them to turn the engines. When I when I was young and know watching the trains we used to help the girl push the push the table around it was we call it they called an Armstrong turntable and it had two leavers on each end that they used to push to turn the course of the turntable

around the engine had to be balanced on this table very carefully. Be easy of course. The two railroads coming into the Ithaca had their own separate tracks but there was one spot where they crossed that Lehi had. Had the right away through this crossing and all the trains had to stop. Before they crossed the Lehigh Valley major efforts were made over the years to help get people and goods in and out of it like the trestle across Six Mile Creek in Brook Tyndale. Passengers might prefer to not look out at the scenery. I suspect some of them were a bit nervous of me and then looking down at her 300 feet. Not one bite of. The six cylinder gasoline powered McKean locomotive like a bus on rails ran back and forth from other travelers from the south. Might change from work and eventually trains at the Lackawanna station and we go across the south where Hannah

on the unusual curved bridge and roll on through Kandor and cattle. The train carried not only freight passengers but the U.S. mail. Railway post-office was set up. To sort mail and route. So that you could cut the time transportation. If it could be started and when it got to that we went out for delivery we drop off and pick up every station. Always a mail message of their tool. Jason Pickett. The oldest railroading venture was forced on to think oh by sheer topography. It was in service for over 100 years well into the 1950s and caused travelers entering and leaving if they could to make part of their journey backwards.

The Ithaca and a week ago was the second railroad chartered in New York State. It opened in 1830 for the final up or downhill run was on an incline with trains raised and lowered on cables operated literally by horse power. The railroad should advance to steam but something had to be done about solves Hill in 1849 work began on a new route. The double switch back finally allowed trains to literally make the grade. After leaving Lackawanna station the train would loop around to what is now Spencer road it then chug up the hill and across St. Quarry Road the first of many intersections on the slow run up 500 feet to the dock. Until things the capacity of the switch back and the car and the weight of the engines could carry bring up the still limited the train size passenger cars they probably could carry a full trade up because they probably had only about three or four cars on the grade it

was quite steep and the train had a maximum capacity of 14 cars of freight cars. And if the train was too heavy they would have to do what they call double the hill which meant that they'd break the train in half take half of it up the top bring the engine back down and get to the rest of it and bring the second part back up to the top of the hill and then put it together and go on a big main reason its capacity was only 14 cars since that's all that would have that the tail of the switchback would hold. In 1919 Lackawanna officials accompanied by a photographer examined every grade crossing to improve its safety. Their project left us with a remarkable and often beautiful record of what it was like along the switchback. Crossing the streets. Hudson Street was a big deal because the engine didn't have it wasn't in a position to blow its horn. For the road crossing

so all the train crew all writing in the car both had to watch for the traffic and make sure that there wasn't any cars coming in that were going to interfere and they used to have an air whistle on the caboose which broke in later years and never bothered to get it fixed. But they had to watch the track make you know they had an air brake valve control there in the caboose that they could stop the train an emergency if there was a. Cars were look like they were going to stop for the train. When I was in junior high my friend Jerry Jones and I would after school would lead high tail it up the hill south hill to Morris chain and train the time this is during World War Two. Spent a lot of time at Morse chain which is what we get on to the caboose with permission the train crew had given us. Permission to get on the boat so we waited for him to get through switching then they took up the train and then we knew the train would take off on up the

hill to the switchback it would it would head out over a hill view place and out at the Six Mile Creek gorge to the second dam to the end of the switchback. And then if it. Would stop and the train crew with the caboose would get out and they'd throw the switch. And the train would then back up. To up the hill to this location here by south side. Your. Fisher's family own child if you will. You really didn't hear any. It was just very very slow moving. I've heard a lot of people used to ride the train would start up here and then going out to your second them and then work on its way down to half way down south hill and then down town. So they would. They would hop a train and they would have the green thing right. Yeah the oval silo Yeah. It said that anyone missing the train in Ithaca could hop a cab an easily beat the train

into one of its switch banks. The last passenger train went along the switchback at the end of March 1942. Freight continued to use it until December nine hundred fifty seven. Some sections of the grade have now been converted to a hiking pass and in a few spots you can still walk the tracks that used to serve as a coming and going. Today you get to the top of the hill by car in five minutes or probably take an hour hour and a half maybe by train. How far below the Cornell campus is good luck. And this is the setting for some of the

greatest moments in the history of Cornell sports. The Cornal crew carries on a tradition that stretches back to the 19th century. The glory years began when Cornell arrived uninvited to defeat Harvard and Yale in their red got. The big red oarsmen became a power in national and international rowing competition due to excellent coaching equipment that was constantly improving and occasionally some aggressive recruit. I went up there I was shanghaied and I went to register for. One subject up there. Had these two men waiting and they took one look at me and they made an appointment to pick me up at my dormitory and took me down to the boat house that afternoon to follow 1935 and I was in from then on. Spectators would line the inlet and crowds congregated at the finish line. But for many years crews raced over a distance of five miles and

watching from a boat could be fun but it wasn't the best vantage point and the team couldn't hear you cheering them on. So in 1898 Mihai Valley Railroad provided Cornell with a rolling grandstand. It started we were the boredom of the way I've always facing your figure you know when you know what happened. In many instances the foot turning things would get a whole game together also. That's where you're going and I would bet. That mission was one dollar. Expensive at the time and there were usually no seats to

spare from the start. The observation train attracted almost as much attention as the boat race itself to accommodate the media. A press box was erected atop one of the cars. The earliest film of the train was shot by the Edison Company at the Cornell Columbia Penrod got it in one thousand no one. Almost sure back you know just plant and there was like. So huge that you said I'm full of flavor. Two of the things I notice in the picture there are a lot of my straw absent people or see them and it was a raucous party usually. During probation. Lord knows what happened. The old guard used to come in the fellers wearing helmets and. In the. Yellow skin fraus ORs in the fancy jacket from. Yesteryear. They'd show up at the boathouse during big race days.

Took you pick your grandchildren wanted to watch it knowing what to do when. In the very land of the time. Horrible stuff. I don't remember anybody ever following me. Why I don't know. There were no guardrails there wasn't a damn thing on the plane supposed to protect anybody. Lehigh Valley locomotives pulled the train from both ends carefully coordinating their movements with whistle blasts. Motorists turned east shore drive into a parking lot to get a glimpse of the racing shells. And if a crew gained a good lead on its rivals it might start racing the train. The last run of the observation train was in 1935 when rough waters caused the races to be cancelled. Fans came away with it least a train ride to remember. These days the athletes are better condition than ever. The shells and oars are sturdier and their

times reflect most competition now takes place in the inlet when the Cornal crew rows back on to the lake to practice if they should ever hear cheering from the east shore. It may be a memory rising from the railroad track. That's why Hanna is one of America's important commercial waterways. But up here the river is calm and scenic as it flows the 11 miles that we know we go and Nicole's entire county New York. Some folks may live by the river all their lives and never see it from a speedboat a canoe or even a rock. But in

the 1970s and early 80s it could get a little crowded out here during the Great. So we go to Nicholls raft race. You look at that river and you say it's a fairly big river and you would think that it's quite deep in all the way through it you know you don't see that under the surface. And I was surprised at how many little shallow places there are and rocks that can come up very easily or just very shortly you know in the water and there's channels there that you you know the river you have no problem if you don't or you're going to get hung up. The idea began with the nickel as part of a community celebration in 1970. Like when I first moved to the area in 71 I first saw this little flotilla of maybe a dozen rafts. Going down the river one day I thought What the heck is this. And within a couple years I was involved with it and it. My role was to be a

marketing manager for a public relations manager for. So I started writing press releases and I put up posters and you know the whole range of T-shirts and hats like this kind of thing I drew the logo for it all on the little flotilla turned into a fundraiser and Environmental Education Project Albert Smith and his friend Arnie Pashto Fred Brock Sonny Maine and John wild missed the first race. They were ready in 1972. When it came. Time to get ready there for the next for the raft race why. We put together a. Plywood box type thing and. Entered in the race and that was the second year they had it and. There was a. Forty two raps in there. In the second race. And we lucked out. We got first place. That would start a winning streak for the French from Spencer and for the great we go to Nicholls Raftery. It was on its way to becoming one of the summer's

back. Well there was a Three different. Classes of RAF so there was. Barrel rafts which they were very bulky and small and they drafted a lot of water. And then. There was an inner tube raft. And. And then there was a pontoon right. They all had their problems. Beryl Rasouli. Dragged in the bottom one it was a shallow and very bulky and their inner two brass and they were sometimes have become punctured from the rock from the bottom and pontoon raft they sail right along but they were quite vulnerable to rupture the bottom of stuff. They were anything and everything you could imagine from underneath them there was plastic barrels there was very there was oil drums and air ducting and not. Anything that could be made to float was was if there was somebody tried in there somewhere is OK. And.

Everybody had their own theory on the way to do it you know and everybody did it differ. We had one guy they came down with a pickup truck loaded with logs and a chain saw and he came down there in the park with you know thousands of people all lined up to go on down to the river and he's making a raft right there in the park with a chainsaw and talking all together and. The logs are all green they haven't been cured or dried at all and so he dragged government sank. With this money which is great. Why would. You want to hear. The rhythm part of our life. An opportunity like this just. I could resist quite a history of the rafting on the river. They didn't have cars in the army at Langan's so they used to build huge big wooden rafts because one of them around here.

Was. Quite a. Quite good. The trees and everything was like birds in the forest at the turn so they had a lot of the trees filled the right side of those trees. And then slowed them down stream all the way to Pennsylvania and they didn't just use it for the wonder but they used it for transporting potatoes and plaster and all kinds of goods that people may want to buy. Those three. Successors to the Pioneer raftsman came from families businesses and fraternal groups. The Parkview Hotel Charlie Jones construction IBM. The sheer Evening Times covered the race and direct of its own and this team was from ws KGTV in 1979. Emma Seedorf Stan's wake but wait and Meg represented the Washington Gladden elementary school PTA complete with team shirts. The students were too young to act.

But we did get permission to bring our plants. Into the school and we painted it white and then the kids painted their names with magic markers little sayings. Good luck and all that kind of thing all over the outside of the rock it was just covered with their names. So we decided I would be a lot easier to sail right down the river than paddle and want to go through all that work. But. They forgot about the fact that at that point along. The way we go to Nicholls area the rock the river is running from east to west. No one is running from west to east. So they went back there when they were stronger than the current and they ended up going up to a dry off island. I think they may still be there are those. Yeah there's a lot of celebrating down there a lot of a lot of exhausted people and then. Coming coming in on the shore it was it was real muddy down there you know step in a neat mud you know trying to pull your raft up and. People would get their feet stuck in the mud and they'd fall

down in the water you know and. A lot of jerkin and Han and thereafter to get out of the water because. To finish the race you had to lift your water lift your raft out of the. Out of the water and carry it up on the shore then you were officially. Time there. They turned out they had IBM computers down. So as you came in they had all those numbers in the pro names and I think rolling across them it took a long time to get down there I mean I think our best time that we ever turned was was an. Hour and forty two minutes and sometimes some of them would drag it out six hours some of the barrel raft you just couldn't make a move all you had to go with the current. You know there is a possibility you get caught on rocks or the raft will see your letter ever but there they had it well organized there were some volunteer people in canoes in boats all along the river there that nobody was more

than I don't know fifteen hundred feet from from being saved if and in case there was an emergency and it was great and this is what gets me now it's because insurance is the thing that killed the race and yet that was so well organized and patrolled. That it would be rare something really bad happened. It was hot and muggy and. I guess by that time the river had over the years gotten cleaned up enough so if you fell overboard you wouldn't lose your skin to the toxic chemicals which was one of things actually we were trying to promote We wanted to to raise the level of awareness in the community that hey this is a pretty special river. It's a great recreational resource a very scenic and. And what a waste to be using it just as an industrial cesspool and I think over the years of course the river has got cleaned up I like to think of the tension that we have to focus on the river had some small part and people cared more because they had fun with it. The great go to Nichols Raft Race floated into the swirling currents of memory. But

it left more behind than some good stories and bad sunburn. The event was successful in raising thousands of dollars for a conservation education center in Adelaide. It was named for one of its major benefactors. But there's a wonderful coincidence in the name. A water scent. Commons is a favorite gathering place in downtime if you get at the spot

where St. and I always preach but if you're saying that you are in power and center you think it's a location that is they can know well for nearly 100 years the heart of the city's retail trade was right here. It was a store that people look back on is more than simply a place to go shopping or calm for next door your parents home. And you would go in and you would feel at home there and yet everything at rough house I mean just very. Ross Chiles department store earned the reputation of carrying both the widest selection and the finest quality of all the stores in Ithaca. First time I walked in the Rothschild's I felt like my mother ought to be holding my hand and I looked around and you were met with the perfume counter which had its own kind of atmosphere. Oh you walked to the elevator the elevators did have a lot of the people in it that announced the floors even though it was only four stories high.

Oh new day had these great staircases that you could go up and I thought this is this is just taking you back in they had everything you know the fourth floor they had furniture there already had lamps in the bed in the second Florida had children's department in a first floor and they had cosmetics and all and the basement was all love china pots pans everything the flow going down. And around going down from women to children. And the first thing you could see was the little merry go round sort of to the back. Did you enjoy the department goods like the the balcony that over here overlook the first floor. You could kind of go up there and camp out and just see who was in by what were your friends and neighbors. It was a great place great place. Well my favorite department with a good morning department I remember our family always been here and I still have my Here we go with the

rough house where you and one of the things that I you know by now pocketbooks knew always that I was a small girl I know like a talisman someone you care like I don't seem to have some big secret. I think you know how they work. Mike remember Ross Chiles will remember all the small who remember was the oldest member of the elevators a clank the wall the floors and most of all all remember Jim Tyler as someone who stood in the middle of the floor and greeted people. Boy how I do miss that. My grandfather the store he's started out I assume from New York City as a. Peddler with merchandise back. And I really don't know

how many years he did that before he ended up in the thing and why you think I think he thought that not only was a college town but it was also the terminus of the Mellon that was going to be a busy. Center at the foot of the lake. At first it was called the Boston store and was located at the corner of Aurora and State Street. Then Jacob Rothschild and his brothers Isaac and Daniel who had joined him in Ithaca decided that the family name was enough to attract the clientele. In 89 Rothschild brothers was established in the wilderness opera house building. The upper floors were occupied by the Conservatory of Music the forerunner to Ithaca College. Beautiful music drifted from the practice rooms to the shopping floor. The two efforts to take care of farmers and they were coming.

Well and. Flattered. At the sale were. Advertised with my words that we will Stabler orses. In 1915 the establishment moved into the building that is now remember so finally in 1927 founder Jacob Rothschild died and his son Leon took over the store. Grandson James joined the family business in 1906. ROS CHILDS had a soda fountain and even a pet shop an automotive Center for a while until a change in the law forced it to close in 1921. The store operated its own bank. But the key to Rothschild success was an understanding of the it's a good community.

However there was a more casual Tallis influence my versity atmosphere than. Most. Towns and cities around I had friends in the department store. Those who. Couldn't understand why we did so much business in what is called sports wear. Compared their stories to them. What more dressy clothes and single women particularly. In that box of war has now is a pair of gloves a firearm a child's eyes as long ago as it takes for a price of kid gloves to have been $2 and you know there were seats in front of that counter and a little yellow and you put your elbow on to the little pillow and then they very carefully look at the

three. That they bought a tube of lipstick we deliver. There was a card you delivered with something basically delivered whatever. They're using when. People are sorry always rostrums delivery driver for 35 years. No charge. We didn't pick it up. Then we had fur coats and we used to pick up you know the stories. And there's no chariots. Baked. Warm feeling in the store and I really think that there was came we think primarily from personnel. Who were in most cases. Old time employees or like all the length of service and please you know who knew their customers and did everything. For the customs for Clara kind that. She was down to China. Remember dirty Murphy. She was on the hose Riza stuff like that.

Even the buyers who were local people would they have to vet six ways and. Have. Certain customers in mind when they went to markets to purchase. Goods for the store and when we would come in there was a husband's birthday or something and it go to this Ralph Mazza. Or buyer. And need to just the shirt the pick in the tie and. You know just what they wanted. He knew their sizes and all out and all we did a body that. You read was beads for a service moment might be when we first met I was in the market presents an article and I would send my mother out. Hartman And the service was so if you had him I was just. One time we had a drop leaf table. And somebody bought me for Christmas. And they kept it all the way till July. In July they called up the one that picked up because he says it was scratched on the bottom.

So Jimmy watch Also this. Just pick it up. Does he spend a lot of money on advertising and he's going to let you know under $20. Table you know. But that's way they did business. One of the nice things about the store was there was a lobby. With a bench. And. Everybody love that lobby. They use that to wait for the trolley cars and later buses. That went by the front door got to be a meeting place all nature with Russ childs lobby. I still have friends that I met in that. Phone me waiting for it right. Oh yeah that was the name Warner that remove their approach instead of driving right. When you're waiting for somebody up to get after you get a bike but you know. I'm not one of the things that was always there with my nose and you need to do it on my

ass next to my and because I worked my way from different departments or you know pre-thought me of the pumps you know department or on the. Bench we all graduate rival the barber. It was a meeting place a cultural center a shopper's dream land. And it made the best in town. For a few years in the 70s Rothschild's also owned the Macleans department stores in Binghamton and a week ago. But shopping malls began to spring up in Tompkins County and this is a good change. Russ Childs had to change with. The Commons opened in 1974 and a year later Ross Chiles moved into a new building constructed a few steps away from the old one. On moving day employees paraded from the old store to the new each carrying a symbolic item of merchandise. But some things couldn't be carried on and they didn't feel too good. The whole building was just something and then like the new building never did.

It was a cold feeling compared to the old store just didn't feel like Ross Giles anymore. The new building was the urban renewal project in the room a lot of lot of people involved in our particular case. It would have been very difficult to remodel the your building. There were codes came into effect after the old building was saying that they were grandfathered. What we had was grandfathered but if we wanted to do any reminding we have to do away with some of the things that made the atmosphere of the store such as the open stairwell which people love to walk through and meet their friends and overlook the first floor of the store from a balcony that would have been close to. The basement ceiling was too low for.

Selling area and we would have had either I don't know what we could have done. Proud Family owned the store for only five years in 1980 it was sold to the United department stores chain which filed for bankruptcy two years later in May one thousand eighty to one hundred years after Jacob Rothschild traded his pedlar's pack for a storefront. Ross trial has closed its doors forever. To more department stores would later occupy the building. McCurdy and Izzard's they didn't last a decade in 1993. The location was sold and became a professional block and classrooms for Thompkins Cortland community college and it was given a new name. The rocket built. Up until about 1970. You see. It's a college was downtown. It's very difficult to have a vital downtown without an anchor. We have a

downtown without an anchor. Now we'll have a lot of little boutique shops and people will come and go but they'll never have another wild childs it was a very satisfying. Business that was frustrating sometimes but it was. Satisfying and when. I was no longer in the store and the. Thing that I missed the most was. Contact and association with employees and customers. It's the every day Association. It was very good. For you that everything you've been somewhere you know if they can back me up my number path will never bring a better man. The real authentic I don't think you know the one that we remember on earth they didn't hire mystery. We've lost something and I don't think we've built a new thing and you know

in dying our neighbors are all living in a crack between the old world we just died in the New World which is not been born and we're going make the best of it. But in the meantime the main thing that got it we've got to keep us from going insane while living in the cracks is memories.